Toward the end of his life, the Chevalier de Seingalt (1725−1798) wrote a long memoir recounting his
life and adventures. The Chevalier was a somewhat controversial figure, but since he met many famous
people, including kings and writers, his memoir has become a valuable historical source about European
society in the eighteenth century. However, some critics have raised doubts about the accuracy of the
memoir. They claim that the Chevalier distorted or invented many events in the memoir to make his life
seem more exciting and glamorous than it really was.
For example, in his memoir the Chevalier claims that while living in Switzerland, he was very wealthy, and
it is known that he spent a great deal of money there on parties and gambling. However, evidence has
recently surfaced that the Chevalier borrowed considerable sums of money from a Swiss merchant. Critics
thus argue that if the Chevalier had really been very rich, he would not have needed to borrow money.
Critics are also skeptical about the accuracy of the conversations that the Chevalier records in the memoir
between himself and the famous writer Voltaire. No one doubts that the Chevalier and Voltaire met and
conversed. However, critics complain that the memoir cannot possibly capture these conversations
accurately, because it was written many years after the conversations occurred. Critics point out that it is
impossible to remember exact phrases from extended conversations held many years earlier.
Critics have also questioned the memoir’s account of the Chevalier’s escape from a notorious prison in
Venice, Italy. He claims to have escaped the Venetian prison by using a piece of metal to make a hole
in the ceiling and climbing through the roof. Critics claim that while such a daring escape makes for
enjoyable reading, it is more likely that the Chevalier’s jailers were bribed to free him. They point out that
the Chevalier had a number of politically well-connected friends in Venice who could have offered a bribe.
You have 20 minutes to plan and write your response. Your response will be judged on the
basis of the quality of your writing and on how well your response presents the points in the lecture and their
relationship to the reading passage. Typically, an effective response will be 150 to 225 words.
The reading and the lecture presents contrasting opinions on accuracy of Chevalier’s memoir. The critic in the reading, on one hand, finds the accuracy of the memoir not germane, lecturer in the lecture on other hands defends the accuracy of the memoir by providing evidences. The lecturer argues on the three points which the reading claims.
One of the point is Chevalier being rich and wealthy in Switzerland. The memoir depicts how he used to spent money in parties and gambling. The reading claims that the accuracy of this particular detail is not reliable as Chevalier had borrowed money from Swiss merchants and if he was rich, he wouldn’t have had a need to borrow money. On contrast, the lecturer disagrees with the reading’s claims, stating that taking loan didn’t prove that Chevalier was not rich and to gain money, one has to invest on it. And after investing the money, while Chevalier was waiting for the returns, he had to borrow money.
Secondly, the reading and lecture differs in their views on the accuracy of the conversation of Chevalier and famous writer Voltaire. The critic in the reading feels that even though the conversation between the two happened, it is not possible to accurately record the conversation which held many years ago in the memoir. Disagreeing with the critics’s view, the lecturer speaks about how Chevalier used to write daily at night about the conversation at very day. And there are many evidences showing that Chevalier very frequently referred to his journals while writing the memoir.
Also, Chevalier’s escape from the Venetian jail was a matter of controversy. As in the memoir, Chevalier had written that he escaped from the prison by drilling a hole on the roof and getting away from it. The critics in the reading finds this as not pertinent and states that as Chevalier had many politically well-acquainted friends, they would have mostly bribed the jailors to free up Chevalier. However, the lecturer digresses from this view, telling that Venice government tells that just after Chevalier escape, the ceiling of Chevalier room had to be repaired. If the Chevalier hadn’t escaped by making a hole, then why would there be need to repair the ceiling. Lecturer also adds up by saying that other prisoners in that very jail had more political friends and none of them bribed. So, bribing certainly was not probable in case of Chevalier too.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 283, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...y of the memoir by providing evidences. The lecturer argues on the three points whi...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, however, if, second, secondly, so, then, well, while, as to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 12.0 10.4613686534 115% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 7.30242825607 164% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 22.412803532 116% => OK
Preposition: 61.0 30.3222958057 201% => Less preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2043.0 1373.03311258 149% => OK
No of words: 403.0 270.72406181 149% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.06947890819 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.48049772903 4.04702891845 111% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.79556261628 2.5805825403 108% => OK
Unique words: 197.0 145.348785872 136% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.488833746898 0.540411800872 90% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 614.7 419.366225166 147% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.23620309051 146% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 13.0662251656 145% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 21.2450331126 99% => OK
Sentence length SD: 46.3431139494 49.2860985944 94% => OK
Chars per sentence: 107.526315789 110.228320801 98% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.2105263158 21.698381199 98% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.42105263158 7.06452816374 48% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 4.33554083885 208% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.196493573404 0.272083759551 72% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0749436613801 0.0996497079465 75% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0446208838466 0.0662205650399 67% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.124445321715 0.162205337803 77% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.017041704151 0.0443174109184 38% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.1 13.3589403974 98% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 58.62 53.8541721854 109% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 11.0289183223 93% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.13 12.2367328918 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.93 8.42419426049 94% => OK
difficult_words: 83.0 63.6247240618 130% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 10.7273730684 79% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 10.498013245 99% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 Out of 30
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.